Welcome
to Northern Ireland

The Original Original Official Home Page of the Northern Ireland Tourist Board

This
is a land of blue mountains and forest parks, mazy lakes and windswept
moors, white Atlantic sands, an inland sea. In fact, it's a country that
is just
pretending to be small. Dozens of small towns are hidden away down among
the green places of the countryside, and fishing villages string out
along the shores. The towers and steeples of parish
churches mark the high ground beyond trimmed hedgerows. The country's turbulent
past, which still resonates today, has also helped shape the landscape.
Distinctive field patterns, for instance, are especially striking, and
so are ruined
castles. Built from the 12th century onwards, and once symbols of both oppression
and reassurance, they are now among Ulster's finest architectural treasures.
Driving in Northern Ireland is to recapture motoring's glad confident
morning. The
roads are excellent, with miles of motorway and dual carriageway, and you
are never much more than half an hour from the sea. Minor roads are well
signposted and there are
convenient places for picnics and sites for caravanning or pitching a tent.
The only traffic jams are flocks of sheep or cattle changing fields.
In the summer you may have to
pull over occasionally to let the music-makers pass, with their pipes and
brilliant banners, marching to a festival in town. The weather can be
fickle but the rain keeps the land a magical emerald green and, when
the wind blows the clouds away to sea, the sky like the mountains is blue.
The air is clean - and so sweet that you will want to open the car windows
to let the breezes in. Because
Northern Ireland is only 5,500 square miles in area - about the size of Yorkshire
or Connecticut - you can see most of the main attractions in a week without
clocking up more
than 500 miles. A short-list might be: